While visiting Japan, you will surely notice pairs of fantastic animals which seem to guard the entrance to the Shinto shrines. Actually, these really are guardians: their role is to protect the shrine against evil spirits. There are several types of such statues in Japan, the most frequent being the Koma-inu, then the Kitsune guardians from the Inari shrines and the monkey gods (Sarugami) from the Hie shrines.

There are also unique statues, like the fantastic felines from Kurama-dera. Today, I would like to show you a very rare variant, discovered in Amanohashidate, at an auxiliary shrine from the Motoise Kono-jinja: a pair of dragons…

Guardian statues, Motoise Kono Shrine, Amanohashidate

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese traditional house, Shoji